Some professionals such as police officers and others in public safety occupations are required to follow predefined procedures/steps when implementing certain tasks. These predefined procedures are typically defined by an organization employing the professional to mitigate legal and other risks to the organization. For example, a police officer is required to follow predefined procedures, as defined by a police department employing the police officer, when effectuating an arrest or using a weapon. If the police officer fails to follow the predefined procedures when, for example, effectuating an arrest, the failure by the police officer to follow the predefined procedures may compromise an investigation, expose the police department to a legal claim, and/or result in release of an apprehended individual.
Even with adequate training, it is impossible for an individual to memorize and retain all procedures associated with all tasks related to the individual's job. It is particularly difficult for the individual to memorize and retain procedures associated with tasks that the individual does not perform frequently. To provide a reference source, the procedures may be written in a manual or a training document. However, when an individual is performing a task, the reference source may or may not be accessible.
In some environments, a robot may be employed to replace a human in automating a task or a complex robotic and human collaboration may be employed to automate certain tasks. For instance, robots or other electronic devices may be configured to carry out tasks simultaneously and/or cooperatively with humans. In some instances to aid an individual in remembering procedures, a robot may be employed to jointly perform a task with an individual, wherein in carrying out the task, steps in a procedure associated with the task are provided by the robot and performed by the individual. In these instances, it is necessary to coordinate the robotic instructions with the tasks that are to be carried out by the individual. As such, a trained computer science professional has to understand the procedures that are documented in, for example, a procedure manual in order to program the procedures into a computer language. In addition to the initial programming cost, as the procedures are updated, the computer program must be updated. The programming cost associated with converting documented procedures into a programming language increases the cost of the human and robot collaboration.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for converting documented procedures to an automated program.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.